History Fridge / WorldOfWarcraft

* Sylvanas' Cataclysm behavior gains a whole new light after reading the short story ''Edge of Night'' on the community website. It details how Sylvanas came to make her pact with the Val'kyr, and in which she's shown what the fate of her people would be [[ForWantOfANail for want of a Dark Lady.]] Her animosity towards Garrosh, in particular. Granted, just being Garrosh can give the other Horde leaders reason to dislike him, but Sylvanas' vision showed Garrosh treating her people like [[WeHaveReserves disposable reserves]] and destroying them to the point that they'd throw themselves into bonfires rather than [[BetterToDieThanBeKilled face the Gilneans]]. Any hatred Sylvanas has towards Garrosh is brought about by the fact that she ''knows'' what he would do if she weren't around.

* Why does [[http://wowpedia.org/Tier_9 Tier 9]] look so boring and uniform? Because, while the other tier armor sets are relics recovered from dreaded dungeons, this one is a reward for overcoming challenges in the Argent Tournament. We can see in Northrend and the Plaguelands that the warrior and paladin sets (which are recolors of each other) are standard issue Argent Crusade armor.

** So according to lore, dragons are the oldest and wisest of all the mortal races and were charged by the Keepers themselves to protect the aspects of Azeroth. They are also the only sentient species in the game which you can skin, use as a mount, keep as pets, and ''slaughter by the thousands for no reason whatsoever.'' (And lest you think all those baby dragon whelplings you killed weren't self-aware yet, a certain [[http://www.wowwiki.com/Awbee tiny blue hatchling]] would like a word with you.) No wonder Malygos wants to murder us all.

* Remember the [[http://www.wowwiki.com/Corrupted_Blood Corrupted Blood Incident]]? How people would run around infecting others? Yeah. FridgeHorror because people might actually ''do'' this in real life. Fun bit of trivia on that, the Corrupted Blood incident is [[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/6951918.stm?lsm actually used]] as a [[http://www.wired.com/gaming/virtualworlds/news/2008/03/wow_terror case study]] by scientists and researchers who study infectious diseases and bioterrorism.

* The Worgen only received their "Running Wild" ability because their racial mounts could not be finished in time, it actually makes a lot of sense. Why bother with a horse when you can already run just as fast on your own?

* While the Worgen only received "Running Wild" because their racial mounts could not be finished in time, it actually makes a lot of sense. They could already run as fast as a horse, why bother with a traditional mount when they can be their own?

* Sylvanas' Catalcysm behavior gains a whole new light after reading the short story ''Edge of Night'' on the community website. It details how Sylvanas came to make her pact with the Val'kyr, and in which she's shown what the fate of her people would be [[ForWantOfANail for want of a Dark Lady.]] Her animosity towards Garrosh, in particular. Granted, just being Garrosh can give the other Horde leaders reason to dislike him, but Sylvanas' vision showed Garrosh treating her people like [[WeHaveReserves disposable reserves]] and destroying them to the point that they'd throw themselves into bonfires rather than [[BetterToDieThanBeKilled face the Gilneans]]. Any hatred Sylvanas has towards Garrosh is brought about by the fact that she ''knows'' what he would do if she weren't around.

** A large part of what made the Black Dragonflight so susceptible to corruption is their proximity to Azeroth itself...but Sabellian was on ''Outland'', where corruption came primarily from the Fel Magics of demons, something that Sabellian would not have really dealt with given he was in Blade's Edge Mountains. As such, the influence of Deathwing, while not completely gone, would have greatly reduced the longer he was there, and especially if there were no other corrupted black dragons who tried to keep him in line. It would also explain why his xenophobic tendencies were limited to the Gronn; because they were targeting his flight and making themselve the target of his ire.

* Blood death knights. Just spend a little time trying to figure out how their spells actually ''work'' in-game and try not to shudder. Death Strike heals you based on how much damage you've recently suffered. Which means that either the spell is indirectly CastFromHitPoints, or it heals you by sucking your blood back off the floor and shoving it back into your veins. This pales beside Bloodworms though. You summon them and they attack enemies until for a while then die and heal nearby allies. Or to put it another way, you heal people by drenching them in the remains of a haemophagic worm that gorged itself until it exploded.

* In ''Warcraft III'', Lord Admiral Daelin Proudmoore has this to say to Jaina about the situation with the orcs: ''"I understand more than you suspect, my dear. Perhaps in time, you will too."'' Fast forward to Tides of War and ''Mists of Pandaria'', where the Horde basically took a large dump on her attempts at peace... and now ''Battle for Azeroth'', where Jaina has completely accepted her father's viewpoint.
** Not quite. While Jaina is pefectly willing to fight the Horde to protect her people and loved ones, she overcame the genocidal hatred that ruined her father. However, she's mistrustful of Baine when he went to Boralus with Derek, and her fears of her revived brother possibly being a bomb show the destruction of Theramore still haunts her.

** There is also already a number of other groups on Outland who would possibly be good candidates to help his flight be uncorrupted: The Mag'har and probably more importantly, the ''Netherwing Dragonflight'', a flight of dragons born from ''black dragon eggs'' and infused with the power of the Nether. Both are groups who have had to deal with their heritage of having corrupted beings in their respective groups, and how to deal with that legacy, but the latter would be especially valuable in helping Sabellian figure out how to undo the corruption on his kin, especially if his time away from Azeroth was already slowly pushing the corruption away from his mind.

** Not quite. While Jaina is pefectly willing to fight the Horde to protect her people and loved ones, she overcame the genocidal hatred that ruined her father. However, she's mistrustful of Baine when he went to Boralus with Derek, and her fears of her revived brother possibly being a bomb show the destruction of Theramor still haunts her.

* Some of the stuff you can get from a Bag of Shiny Things and boxes you get from Fishing have frightening implications when you consider they're collected by the Fishing Trainer. There's the Hangman's Noose (dried blood is on it), the Very Unlucky Rock (also stained with blood) and the Polished Skull (no clue as to who it's from). The Crate of Tasty Meat you can buy with Epicurean Awards (which "smells weird" according to the Item Text) can contain creepy VendorTrash too, like a Rusty Butcher's Knife (blood stained, again) a Motorized Bone Saw ("Best to leave it off," says the text) and a 47" Tapeworm. (The true horror comes when you consider that the useful stuff in the crate is used to make stuff that you - or someone else - is going to ''eat''.)

* MoralDissonance in ''Wrath of the Lich King'':
** In order to complete quest lines (which is where most of the fun and experience points lies), one has to [[http://www.boingboing.net/2008/12/08/torture-in-videogame.html torture prisoners]], kill game hunters on a quest for an AnimalWrongsGroup (and in a different area you end up killing animals on a quest for those same game hunters, so whatever the morality of the situation, you are doing ''something'' wrong), kidnap children, beat up adorable baby monkeys, and just generally do things [[DesignatedHero that don't make you feel like you're much of a hero]]. And then it dawns on you that the BigBad of the expansion is the Lich King, a paladin who set out to fight evil but who in the course of doing so kept finding himself with the decision of either performing some evil deed or giving up his fight against evil. Each time, [[WellIntentionedExtremist he chose to perform the evil deed]], and thus he lost his soul one piece at the time and finally turned into an EvilOverlord. And come to think of it, in the trailer for the expansion he threatened that if you came to Northrend to fight him, the same thing would happen to you. OhCrap.
** From the box of the Wrath of the Lich King case: "If you stare long into the abyss... the abyss stares back into you." The other half of that quote is the heart-chilling, "HeWhoFightsMonsters should see to it that he himself does not become a monster."
** It makes even more sense as you find out about Yogg Saron, the EldritchAbomination whose physical mass is under nearly all of Northrend and whose presence drives people insane.
** It becomes even clearer at the end of the fight against the Lich King, as a scripted event kills every player still alive and he boasts how Icecrown, and indeed every event of the expansion, was really just a massive plan to corrupt and ultimately attract the greatest heroes of Azeroth to die at his feet and be raised as his new champions. Unfortunately he hadn't counted on his father's soul returning to resurrect the heroes and hold him helpless as they finish him off.
** With Patch 3.2, a few new instance dungeons were added. One of these has a boss that has annoyed players greatly. While he was originally a human Death Knight, in the instance he returns as an Undead Death Knight, with partially decaying skin and everything. When you kill him, he returns as a skeleton, claiming the flesh was only holding him back. And even when you kill his skeletal form, he returns AGAIN as a ghost yelling how he didn't even need his bones to kill you. Then you realize the significance of his name: [[Film/MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail The Black Knight]]. And that's (so far) the last time you fight him, too. Before that, you uncovered and fought him on horseback, after which he fled, and then uncovered his scheming AGAIN to lead into the Trial of the Champion boss fight. He just won't stay dead. Nothing compared to Anub'arak, though.. Nothing in the Scourge ever stays dead, really.
** The mount the Black Knight rides is a gryphon. Much of the forum would like to see it named "The African Swallow". Or European Swallow.

* Sylvanas destroying the Helm of Domination in the Shadowlands trailer]], if one remembers Terenas's last words back during ''Wrath of the Lich King'', this means that the Scourge will go rampage on all of Azeroth without its leader.

* The revelation that since ''Legion'' the soul of everyone who died has gone to the Maw explains why Night Elves raised from the dead in Darkshore are willing to join Sylvanas. They have literally been trapped in hell with no sign of Elune coming to rescue them; instead it's Sylvanas who frees them from an eternity of torment. Their fury at Elune and constant talk of betrayal make more sense in light of this.

* The revelation that since ''Legion'' the soul of everyone who died has gone to the Maw explains why Night Elves raised from the dead in Darkshore are willing to join Sylvanas. They have literally been trapped in hell with no sign of Elune coming to rescue them; instead it's Sylvanas who frees them from an eternity of torment. Their fury at Elune and constant talk of betrayal make more sense in light of this.

* In the book "Thrall: Twilight of the Aspects," we learn that Arygos, Malygos's son, was planning to betray his people to the Twilight hammer cult should he become the new Aspect of Magic (he had already turned his sister over to the cult, allowing them to experiment on her and her eggs). Arygos's actions, however, make sense when you remember his history. He was stuck in Ahn'Qiraj for 1,000 years! The whispers of C'Thun likely drove Arygos mad, just like what happened with Deathwing.

** It makes even more sense as you find out about [[spoiler: Yogg Saron, the EldritchAbomination whose physical mass is under nearly all of Northrend and whose presence drives people insane.]]
** It becomes even clearer at the end of the fight against the Lich King, as a scripted event kills every player still alive and he boasts how Icecrown, and indeed every event of the expansion, was really [[spoiler: just a massive plan to corrupt and ultimately attract the greatest heroes of Azeroth to die at his feet and be raised as his new champions. Unfortunately he hadn't counted on his father's soul returning to resurrect the heroes and hold him helpless as they finish him off.]]

** [[AllThereInTheManual In the World of Warcraft manga]], the Horseman's backstory is revealed. [[spoiler:He used to be a Scarlet Crusader who had a FreakOut after unwittingly killing his family. He went on a rampage before getting decapitated by his comrades, then Balnazzar reanimated him as the Headless Horseman]]. So yes, this is correct.

* It seems a bit random and VillainBall-y that, in the ''Last Rites'' questline, [[spoiler:the Cult of the Damned infiltrator opted to brainwash Thassarian's sister, who had basically no strategic significance. The other victim was a ''general'', all Leryssa seemed to do was [[ItsPersonal piss Thassarian off]]. But she ''[[HeKnowsTooMuch knew too much]]''. If she kept poking through the records and telling everyone who would listen about her brother, it would come out (as it did, when the player investigated) that he'd been sent on a suicide mission to get him out of the way. ''And the cultist, through the puppet general, must have ordered that.'' Obviously, the Lich King's minions wouldn't want his enemies to have Death Knights]].
* Saronite, a metal which is known to drive people to madness, is named after Yogg-Saron. Rightfully so, too: [[spoiler: it's supposedly his solidified blood. In Dragonblight, you learn that the Tuskarr call it "the black blood of Yogg-Saron".]]
* The end of the final battle with the Lich King [[spoiler: in which he declares that [[XanatosGambit he allowed Tirion to lay siege to Icecrown Citadel so that whatever champions Tirion brought with him, the greatest of all of Azeroth's adventurers, the Lich King could kill and raise as the generals of his army.]]]] At first it sounds like just an excuse for the Argent Crusade getting as far into his territory as they did; but then you realize that the Lich King has been operating under a "survival of the fittest" pattern for new recruits ''ever since the beginning''; it's how Death Knight initiates determined ranking, and how his Vrykul servants determined who would become elite guard and who would be shamed as zombies. There's also the fact that undead that are too weak to use in combat get fed to Gluth, a fairly difficult raid boss in Naxxramas, and when Tyrannus dismisses Jaina/Sylvanas' men as "not even fit to labor in the quarry" before making them mindless undead. The Lich King does not just amass large armies with his ability to raise the dead, but also is quite discerning about who would be best suited to serve him after being reanimated.

* Sylvanas' Catalcysm behavior gains a whole new light after reading the short story ''Edge of Night'' on the community website. It details how Sylvanas came to make her pact with the Val'kyr, and in which she's shown what the fate of her people would be [[ForWantOfANail for want of a Dark Lady.]] Her animosity towards Garrosh, in particular. Granted, just being Garrosh can give the other Horde leaders reason to dislike him, but Sylvanas' vision showed [[spoiler:Garrosh treating her people like [[WeHaveReserves disposable reserves]] and destroying them to the point that they'd throw themselves into bonfires rather than [[BetterToDieThanBeKilled face the Gilneans]]]]. Any hatred Sylvanas has towards Garrosh is brought about by the fact that she ''knows'' what he would do if she weren't around.

* In ''Warlords'', the battle of Shattrath ends with [[spoiler: Exarch Maraad saving Yrel at the cost of his own life, then Yrel and Durotan teaming up to fend off Blackhand before Khadgar can teleport them out]]. Every ability used during that cutscene is ''also'' [[GameplayAndStoryIntegration present in the game itself]]. [[spoiler: Maraad's barrier on Yrel is the Hand of Protection, Yrel heals Durotan with her Lay on Hands, and Yrel activates Avenging Wrath, which grants a significant damage boost along with the glowing wings, and would also explain how she finally inflicted a serious wound to Blackhand, who'd been {{No Sell}}ing prior to that point]].

** One: [[spoiler: Gul'dan binding Grom is a call back to episode 2 of Lords of War when he got captured by the orges. Especially with Gul'dan wanting to [[BreakTheBadass break]]]] Grom's will. The only question that remains to be seen is if Gul'dan will be successful or not.
** Two: [[spoiler: Kilrogg doesn't hesitate when he joins Gul'dan and drinks Mannoroth's blood. While it may look like Kilrogg was only [[IFightforTheStrongestSide fighting for the strongest side]]]], Kilrogg pretty much KNEW what he was getting himself into, since chieftains of his clan can foresee their own death. Kilrogg must have been aware of Garrosh's plan form the very start, [[spoiler: and was [[YouCantFightFate following his destiny]] knowing that time traveling messed up the timeline, so if Grom wouldn't [[RefusedTheCall carry out destiny]] [[JumpedAtTheCall he would]]. ]]
** Third and final: With knowledge of the future and the Iron Horde weakened, Gul'dan picked the perfect time to [[spoiler:take over the Iron Horde turn it into the true horde,]] with Kilrogg as[[spoiler: his new "Blackhand". In a meta sense, the timeline might be correcting itself.]]

* Starting Demon Hunter PC's at level 98, and chronologically during the attack on Black Temple. After taking into consideration the stat squish, PC stats and abilities at level 98 compared to level 70 health pools and damage, and the coefficients on [[PlayerVersusPlayer PvP]] damage and damage reduction...the PC actually would be on rough parity with a level 70 raid boss, especially considering how ridiculously overtuned Burning Crusade raid bosses were. You even get to see how [[ArtificialStupidity artificially stupid]] aggro mechanics actually are later, during[[spoiler: Illidan's flashbacks]].
* The Demon Hunters aren't the only class whose ResurrectiveImmortality gets justified in Legion, Death Knights also get it subtly justified. [[spoiler: Icebringer and Soulreaper retain Frostmourne's soul stealing powers, and your character has to enter the blades to gain control. The PC Death Knight has become a Lich. Even more so, unless you use a spirit healer, you need to run back to your body to revive, and that's where your weapons are.]]

* The final quest of the Death Knight campaign has the player [[spoiler:attack Light's Hope Chapel to resurrect Tirion Fordring as the final horseman. However, as the death knight channels the resurrection spell, the [[LightIsGood Holy Light]] itself stuns the Death Knights and saves Tirion from being resurrected, with the Knights of the Ebon Blade barely escaping with their, for lack of a better word, "lives". Just as A'dal said in ''Wrath of the Lich King'' during the [[TearJerker/WorldOfWarcraft Tearjerker]] Crusader Bridenbrad quest chain: ''The light does not abandon its champions.'' Also, the Light seems to know who qualifies as a true champion of its cause and who does not, as it did ''not'' save High Inquisitor Whitemane from being resurrected and forced into undeath.]]

!!AC:FridgeHorror

* Courtesy of the Discussion page of Wowpedia in relation to what exactly [[EldritchAbomination Yogg-Saron]] being the God of Death means: ''"Hard to say, for the simple reason that nobody knows what Yogg-Saron is. However there's an important distinction to be made here-- the Lich King represents an unbridled power over undeath, while Yogg-Saron appears to personify death. These things are not the same; undeath is unnatural and twisted, while death is in fact a natural and universal phenomenon. My guess is that Yogg-Saron is somehow the literal personification of death itself; the tentacles symbolizing the countless ways death can grasp life, and the maws symbolizing the countless ways death can and will devour life eventually. If this interpretation is true, it would basically mean that Yogg-Saron is the true name and the true face of the Grim Reaper in World of Warcraft."'' Screw DontFearTheReaper, if that WMG is true, you want to avoid the reaper for as long as you can. Even worse when you think of Terenas' last words to Arthas. "No King Rules Forever". Now, where did we hear that being said before? It puts a whole new context to TheNothingAfterDeath [[spoiler: Sylvanas]] and possibly Arthas experienced.

* The [[spoiler: Void Lords]] got [[TheBadGuyWins exactly what they wanted]]. While they couldn't corrupt a titan using the Old Gods they still managed to turn one into an [[OmnicidalManiac demon like creature that wants to destroy everything]].
* In Legion, in the starting Demon Hunter zone, you have to make a SadisticChoice: kill one of your valuable brethren to power a gateway for needed reinforcements of RedShirts, or ''yourself''. [[spoiler: It turns out that DeathIsASlapOnTheWrist in your case, but Illidan himself tells you that you "have an immortal demon soul".]] [[CursedWithAwesome Sounds great]] in theory... except you have given up your essential humanity - or [[PerfectlyCromulentWord elfity]] - to defeat the Burning Legion.
** And, to further drive the point home, [[spoiler: some of your fellow Demon Hunter [=NPCs=] willingly join the Legion once you're past the starting zone]].

* Sylvanas [[spoiler: destroying the Helm of Domination in the Shadowlands trailer]], if one remembers Terenas's last words back during ''Wrath of the Lich King'', this means that [[spoiler: the Scourge will go rampage on all of Azeroth without its leader.]]
%%[[AC:FridgeLogic]]
* In the book "Thrall: Twilight of the Aspects," we learn that Arygos, Malygos's son, was planning to betray his people to the Twilight hammer cult should he become the new Aspect of Magic (he had already urned his sister over to the cult, allowing them to experiment on her and her eggs). Arygos's actions, however, make sense when you remember his history. He was stuck in Ahn'Qiraj for 1,000 years! The whispers of C'Thun likely drove Arygos mad, just like what happened with Deathwing.

[[AC:FridgeBrilliance]]

[[AC:FridgeHorror]]

* In the book "Thrall: Twilight of the Aspects," we learn that Arygos, Malygos's son, was planning to betray his people to the Twilight hammer cult should he become the new Aspect of Magic (he had already urned his sister over to the cult, allowing them to experiment on her and her eggs). Arygos's actions, however, make sense when you remember his history. He was stuck in Ahn'Qiraj for 9,000 years! The whispers of C'Thun likely drove Arygos mad, just like what happened with Deathwing.

* Supposedly in life Sylvanas was very vain. This might explain why she isn't all rotten and gross like most undead: she goes to great length to preserve her body and appearance.
* Remember [[ComedicSociopathy Sean Dempsey]] from the Cataclysm expansion? You first meet him in the Worgen starting zone, lying on the floor being tended to because he just got mauled by glorified werewolves. And then, you meet him as a corpse strewn across 4-5 different crocolisk stomachs in the Forsaken questline. Then you have him resurrected into a Forsaken, just to have your buddies shoot him in the face. The guy can't catch a break. But how did he end up in those crocolisk stomachs? Again during the Worgen starting zone, you're riding a carriage when you see a broken down one in the road. The Prince at that carriage notes the ogres throwing boulders at your carriages, saying "The one behind us got hit harder, and it tumbled off the road into the swamp." When you go over there, what do you see? Survivors fighting off crocolisks. Chances are, Sean Dempsey was on that carriage, and, wounded and defenseless, was eaten by the crocolisks. If you visit Gilneas later, you'll note the crocolisks aren't there. Chances are, they migrated due to the earthquakes to Southern Silverpine, where you start killing them and discover Sean's mostly digested body parts.

** In order to complete quest lines (which is where most of the fun and experience points lies) have to [[http://www.boingboing.net/2008/12/08/torture-in-videogame.html torture prisoners]], kill game hunters on a quest for an AnimalWrongsGroup (and in a different area you end up killing animals on a quest for those same game hunters, so whatever the morality of the situation, you are doing ''something'' wrong), kidnap children, beat up adorable baby monkeys, and just generally do things [[DesignatedHero that doesn't make you feel like you're much of a hero]]. And then it dawns on you that the BigBad of the expansion is the Lich King, a paladin who set out to fight evil but who in the course of doing so kept finding himself with the decision of either performing some evil deed or giving up his fight against evil. Each time, [[WellIntentionedExtremist he chose to perform the evil deed]], and thus he lost his soul one piece at the time and finally turned into an EvilOverlord. And come to think of it, in the trailer for the expansion he threatened you that if you came to Northrend to fight him, the same thing would happen to you. OhCrap...

** The mount the Black Knight rides is a griffin. Much of the forum would like to see it named "The African Swallow". Or European Swallow.

** ''Burning Crusade'' dropped warrior as an available blood elf class for the more popular paladin. Though it was clearly a balance issue, many forumers used the moronic rationale that, "Elves are too delicate to enter heavy melee." Now that blood elf warriors are in ''Cataclysm'', it's Fridge Brilliance. It's a chilling parallel to how World War I destroyed the entire generation of young men for countless villages. There were no blood elf warriors not because elves are somehow ill-suited to fighting, but because so many died fighting Arthas in ''Warcraft III''. Only ten years later (in-game) are level 1 elf warriors finally replacing Silvermoon's best and finest. Instead of a fandumb appeasing move, it becomes something profoundly sad.

* The end of the final battle with the Lich King [[spoiler: in which he declares that [[XanatosGambit he allowed Tirion to lay siege to Icecrown Citadel so that whatever champions Tirion brought with him, the greatest of all of Azeroth's adventurers, the Lich King could kill and raise them as the generals of his army.]]]] At first it sounds like just an excuse for the Argent Crusade getting as far into his territory as they did; but then you realize that the Lich King has been operating under a "survival of the fittest" pattern for new recruits ''ever since the beginning''; it's how Death Knight initiates determined ranking, and how his Vrykul servants determined who would become elite guard and who would be shamed as zombies. There's also the fact that undead that are too weak to use in combat get fed to Gluth, a fairly difficult raid boss in Naxxramas, and when Tyrannus dismisses Jaina/Sylvanas' men as "not even fit to labor in the quarry" before making them mindless undead. The Lich King does not just amass large armies with his ability to raise the dead, but also is quite discerning about who would be best suited to serve him after being reanimated.

* There was no draenei {{retcon}}. The story of the eredar being complicit in the corruption of Sargeras was created and deliberately disseminated by Kil'jaeden. And because he's such an apt...well, ''[[MeaningfulName deceiver]]'', people in-universe actually thought that it was the truth, and that's why it appears in historical texts (which is how the [=WCIII=] game manual should be viewed).

* The Halls of Reflection dungeon in ''Wrath''. Frostmourne still had the souls of everyone it killed in it, and that the souls can come out and harass Arthas (as we see in the battle with him), so that's probably why he keeps it in the Halls of Reflection. The ghosts that you fight are the ghosts of every soldier Arthas killed with the sword, and the reason that he has a room for it is because he's filled with remorse. It's the Halls of ''Reflection''. He leaves the sword in the center and reflects on all the deaths and pain he's caused. So Jaina was right; there ''is'' a bit of Arthas left in the Lich King, and he's truly horrified by what he's done. He's still overpowered by the Lich King, but he's still in there. So what used to seem like a fairly random dungeon turned into something really interesting.

** In Cataclysm, the draenei didn't receive a new class while every other race did. But it's because they had not fought the Lich King that much. They hadn't done much at ''all'' since the Sunwell, only sending a single corp to Valiance Keep and sending representatives to the Argent Tournament. The reason for not getting a new class wasn't because they couldn't think of another one, it was because the draenei weren't shaken by the Cataclysm like the other, native races of Azeroth. It's kind of sad once you think about it. The draenei are almost universally just and fair, but when it comes to world affairs, they are almost completely aloof and separated. They never stop fighting battles of the past, never stop claiming "the Legion's end draws near". The only draenei you see at the forefront of the war against Deathwing are the shamans of the Earthen Ring, far more down to earth and proactive than their paladin and priest brothers and sisters.
** In ''Wolfheart'', how aloof the draenei have been becomes pretty clear. The other races were invited to Darnassus to cast their vote on if the worgen should be accepted to the Alliance or not. Tyrande didn't ask the draenei to come because ''she thought they had all gone back to Outland after the Sunwell.'' The draenei have done ''so'' little that their own allies didn't even know they were still around.

** A bit of Fridge Brilliance: The Burning Legion hasn't been defeated. It's out there, it's still gunning for Azeroth, and this time it's personal. And the draenei are a long lived species, but it's still incredibly likely that fighting or running from the Burning Legion has consumed the better part of most of their lives - so ''that's'' the threat they're still focused on.
** As of Mists, there are many draenei soldiers in the alliance, the spy group the Alliance enter and quest with in Pandaria (and in the Alliance dailies) has a draenei medic. Velen is more involved with Anduin's training as a champion of light. However, even with this they're among the least represented races in quests and lore compared to the others.

* Sylvanas' Catalcysm behavior gains a whole new light after reading the short story ''Edge of Night'' on the community website. It details how Sylvanas came to make her pact with the Val'kyr, and in which she's shown what the fate of her people would be [[ForWantOfANail for want of a Dark Lady.]] Her animosity towards Garrosh, in particular. Granted, just being Garrosh can give the other Horde leaders reason to dislike him, but Sylvanas' vision showed [[spoiler:Garrosh treating her people like [[WeHaveReserves disposable reserves]] and destroying them to the point that they'd throw themselves into bonfires [[BetterToDieThanBeKilled than face the Gilneans]]]]. Any hatred Sylvanas has towards Garrosh is brought about by the fact that she ''knows'' what he would do if she weren't around.

*** After his father Alexandros dies betrayed by his other son and becomes a death knight, [[HeroicSacrifice Darion frees Alexandros' soul by impaling himself onto his father' s sword and becoming a death knight himself]].
*** After being a mind-controlled death knight for a while, in the midst of a losing battle Darion overthrows the Lich King's control by remembering his father. He purifies the cursed sword by giving it to a powerful paladin.
*** Allied with said paladin, Darion, now with an anti-heroic mindset, ventures North to destroy the Lich King and his undead empire.

** The relative ease of the battle. As we now know, Murozond is the future self of Nozdormu, the Aspect of Time. The other Aspects players have fought against, Malygos and Deathwing, required raids to defeat and yet Murozond is only a five man boss? Putting aside the aid given by the Hourglass of Time, there's actually a very simple reason for needing a less powerful group to fight Murozond: For Nozdormu/Murozond, this battle is taking place ''after'' Deathwing's defeat, which means it's taking place after he's lost his full power as an Aspect. He's still powerful, but nowhere near as powerful as he would've been in full Aspect glory like Malygos and Deathwing.

* Why was Vol'jin chosen over all other Horde leaders for the position of Warchief? Vol'jin was the only one who managed to set aside his own pride for the good of the Horde. He asked the Alliance to help take down Garrosh instead of trying to do it alone, and he left the raiders to go flush out Garrosh while he dealt with the chaos in the streets above, instead of acting on his promise to kill Garrosh himself. No other Horde leader, not even Thrall, was able to hold back their pride like that, and that's what makes Vol'jin the best choice for Warchief. Even more fridge brilliance when you consider the event that started the whole siege was the unleashing of the Sha of Pride.

* It's a subtle one, but when Thrall tells Garrosh he has disappointed him, the tusks of Mannoroth fall off as he awakes/recovers from the fight. Considering how it was his father in the prime timeline that freed the orcs from demon taint, it's a symbolic way of showing that Garrosh really is a disgrace to not only his own father, but the orcish race as a whole because he nearly damned them to a different, but equally as bad evil magic to turn them into bloodthirsty warmongers infused with it to conquer Azaroth.

** One: [[spoiler: Gul'dan binding Grom is a call back to episode 2 of lords of war when he got captured by the orges. Especially with Gul'dan wanting to [[BreakTheBadass break]]]] Grom's will. The only question that remain to be seen is if Gul'dan will be succesful or not.
** Two: [[spoiler: Kilrogg doesn't hesitate when he joins Gul'dan and drinks Mannoroth's blood. While it may look like Kilrogg was only [[IFightforTheStrongestSide fighting for the strongest side]]]], Kilrogg pretty much KNEW what he was getting himself into, since chieftains of his clan can foresee their own death. Kilrogg must have been aware of Garrosh's plan form the very start, [[spoiler: and was [[YouCantFightFate following his destiny]] knowing that time traveling messed up the timeline, so if Grom wouldn't [[RefusedTheCall carry out destiny]] [[JumpedAtTheCall he will]]. ]]
** Thrid and final: With knowledge of the future and the Iron Horde weakened, Gul'dan picked the perfect time to [[spoiler:take over the Iron Horde turn it into the true horde,]] with Kilrogg as[[spoiler: his new "Blackhand". In a meta sense, the timeline might be correcting itself.]]

** From a line in the quest text to directly recruit her, she claims that the Legion is the source of all of her woes, heavily implying that she knows that the Scarlet Crusade was puppeted by Balnazzar, at least after the fact, and is quite eager to put the rest of the Legion to the sword because of it.

* The Demon Hunters aren't the only class who's [[ResurrectiveImmortality Resurrective Immortality]] gets justified in Legion, Death Knights also get it subtly justified. [[spoiler: Icebringer and Soulreaper retain Frostmourne's soul stealing powers, and your character has to enter the blades to gain control. The PC Death Knight has become a Lich. Even more so, unless you use a spirit healer, you need to run back to your body to revive, and that's where your weapons are.]]

* In the book "Thrall: Twilight of the Aspects," we learn that Arygos, Malygos's son, was planning to betray his people to the Twilight hammer cult should he become the new Aspect of Magic (he had already urned his sister over to the cult, allowing them to experiment on her and her eggs). Arygos's actions, however, make sense when you remember his history. He was stuck in Ahn'Qiraj for 9,000 years! The whispers of C'Thus likely drove Arygos mad, just like what happened with Deathwing.

* Another one in Legion, but the concept of homunculus is pretty disturbing in it's own right. They're effectively undead, but are so well disguised and capable of acting like any other person that they can hide in plain sight with no one the wiser. While most of the homunculus you kill (if you were a rogue) are characters you don't pay much attention to, or are just random NPCs, some of them have taken the place of several NPCs who long time players have visited or met a number of times, such as an Alliance Auctioneer. It's really terrifying and sad to consider just how many of them may have outright replaced people's loved ones, who live unaware that their loved ones are horrible abominations in disguise.